I, Brandon

It’s weird how things work. Literally just about 48 hours ago I was wondering, like many of you were, “What has happened to the Jewish Jordan?”

Tamir Goodman was an absolute beast of a prep basketball player in the late 90s who received heaps of international media coverage upon accepting a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland. ESPN, 60 Minutes, Sports Illustrated and the likes were suddenly swarming the kid, who looked like anything but a typical high school stud hoops star.

Yes, he also played hoops wearing the yarmulke.

As it turns out, playing and practicing hoops on Friday nights and Saturdays goes against the Sabbath laws of Orthodox Judaism. Goodman wound up going to Towson and was basically never heard from again, at least in the national scope.

Yet, for some odd reason, he entered my mind recently. Considering I spent half an hour yesterday alternating between Hall & Oates and Roxette B-sides, the fact a very talented but obscure Jewish basketball player from 10 years ago jumped into my brain should come as no surprise.

Turns out he’s been playing in Israel and even served in the Israeli Defensive Force. Check the video courtesy of NBC Washington:

Also, he’s not this guy, who no one should like at all.

Red Death. 17-year old Sinatra-style crooning! Arrgggghhh!!!111!!!

• Watching “The Wrestler.” Really good so far. #
• Sent an email to @technorati almost a week ago asking for help claiming bscarter.com. No response. Not even an acknowledgment. FAIL. #
• Wow. TJ McCloud done gone and signed up. #followfriday @tjmccloud (singer, songwriter, former Stephen Speaks dude, ministah, missionary etc) #
• RT @ShoutFactory: @bscarter Fear not. Parker Lewis is coming to DVD on June 30. Follow @shoutfactory for updates! (Excellent, smithers) #
• Know what? The fact that Parker Lewis Can’t Lose isn’t in syndication somewhere. People need to know Kubiak outside of his stint on ER. #
• Most states probably have crappy “state rock songs” from groups like Creed and Nickelback. Awesome that OK will have one fm the Flaming Lips #
• RT @LoriRasmussen: BREAKING: Gov. Henry to sign executive order proclaiming “Do You Realize?? as Oklahoma’s official state (Awesome!) #
• RT @cheapchick: #SLC Dine O’ Round discount restaurant deal: http://www.downtownslc.com/events/dine-o-round.htm (I can afford Bambara now) #
• RT @CFTalk: ANOTHER SOONER HIT WITH WARRANT http://is.gd/tXCv (Only 1 point in the Fulmer Cup, likely. Bob, make them pay their tickets plz) #
• This Ben Harper concert is outstanding. I hate to say it, but the Relentless7 may be better than the Innocent Criminals. http://bit.ly/PP4EC #
• RT @davidburger: Right now, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 are playing a concert that is streaming live at http://www.natgeomusic.net, from Rome #
• The @tulsaoknews account is weird. It followed all of MY followers at one point, then unfollowed me. Look, it’s following a bunch of UT ppl. #
• Empty office has allowed me to be ridiculously productive. Getting many things done, with sexy results. How sha… ♫ http://blip.fm/~4rzgr #
• RT @neatcompany Neat wants you to use less paper, so we’re giving away 10 NeatDesk units for free! RT or comment on our blog to enter. #
• RT @sproutmarketing: SLC’s Simmons Media sites (@X96, @1280TheZone) now have SpinGo event calendars http://pitch.pe/9446 (srsly, they rokk) #
• #honk #
• Wait, Franz Ferdinand is playing here tonight, and I’m just now finding out? @#$# #
• Just ate a bunch of deep fried sushi. The south’s influence in the culinary universe makes everything better. #
• What are the best SLC-centric blogs y’all read? (politics and Atlas Shrugged-inspired rants at a minimum, preferably) #
• For every good show that Comedy Central comes up with (Reno 911), they have ten that are absolutely terrible (Krod Mandoon) #
• Hmmm….(Insert inspiration quote here) – (historical figure) –OR– (Blog post about Twitter) by (Random person) (Many Exclamation Points) #

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Ahhh, NFL Draft Weekend. Where young, pampered athletes are selected by pro teams to come to their cities and receive millions of dollars and eventually get a DUI or domestic abuse charge. It’s not football per se, but it is two days of talking football, watching highlights and soaking up what you can of God’s sport before the summer-long exile. In other words, your final excuse to drink beer in front of the TV for a while.

It’s also when ESPN puts some of their more intolerable personalities out front for hours upon hours at a time. Todd McShay, Chris Berman and Mel Kiper. Get used to Kiper and his hair, because this weekend is a virtual Kiperkakke.

Behold, Mel Kiper

I actually have an appreciation for Kiper, despite the goofy look and rumored outsized ego. When my team, the Buffalo Bills, inevitably wastes one of their top picks on the kid no one has heard of from the school no one knows about, Kiper can seem like he is the kid’s dad.

“This is a value pick for the Bills. Dingleberry Shorts has a high motor but a slow engine. He’s an aggressive lineman with the appetite of a child slave locked in a basement. He loves Magnum P.I. and has the touch of an Armenian masseuse when making love.”

I would normally say there’s no way the guy truly knows all the information he relays, but he really doesn’t do much else (outside the occasional stint on ESPN Radio). The guy is paid to watch and learn about college football players.

————–

That being said, here’s my prediction for the draft: Top six picks go mostly as planned, with Stafford, Monroe, Curry, Smith, Sanchez and Crabtree. After that, trade city. No one wants to get into the top six; considering those guys will make as much as $10 million a year, why would you? There are proven veterans who don’t make that.

Duke Robinson to go in the second round, Loadholt and Iglesias in the third. Nic Harris, Lendy Holmes and Cooper will go on the second day. Knowledge, I haz it.

—————

The advent of grilling season is upon us! Most folks have already broken out the grill a few times, and the rednecks among us have already grilled at least four different animals.

I’ll throw in a plug here for allrecipes.com. Everything I’ve picked to make off there has been fantastic – I recommend doing a general search for whatever it is you want to cook (say, pork chops), then select the highest rated recipe. But don’t stop there – go to the highest rated comment. This is where some smart-ass has thrown out an improvement to the posted recipe (“Add Minced Rat!”).

This comment almost always proves to be an improvement, because it usually adjusts the original ingredients to better proportions.

So go out, grab your Rambo knife or your spear, nab yourself a wild animal and throw the booger on the coals!

See you Monday.

On the way into work this morning I was listening to a sports talk radio station out of Oklahoma (thanks to the glorious Wunder Radio iPhone App, which rokks) and the host started going off on earth day.

Plano, Texas. Kidding. It's another dump somewhere.

“I need to put some gas in my hummer.”

“I cry at night becuase I’m lonely and Cinemax doesn’t hug back!”

And on and on and on he went (except for that last one. Maybe.) Meanwhile I jumped over  to another station because I was hoping to listen to sports, not freakin’ politics. If I wanted to listen to political ranting, I’d be…well, weird and friendless, likely.

But the guy’s words got the hamster in a wheel that controls my brain to run. My thought was: Why in the hell would you oppose earth day? On any side of the political spectrum?

I mean, sure, oppose the liberals, hippies, republicans, gun toters, potheads, libertarians, librarians, socialists, tricks, marks, scallywags, punks, skig-skag scallywags, heehaws, and hoolihoos. But Earth Day?

What could be so bad about doing something to improve the world around you? Acknowledging Earth Day doesn’t mean you acknowledge global warming or that the earth is ruled by a secret society of lizards. To me, it means you acknowledge God’s creation and honor it, by doing something that’s good for it.

And typically, what’s good for the earth is good for you.

It’s good for you to walk and not drive for a day.

It’s good for you to labor a little bit and plant a tree or pull some weeds. It makes your place look better.

Heck, a lot of Earth Day deeds can put MORE MONEY IN YOUR WALLET. Leaving lights off, not letting the water run while you do your morning flexing in front of the mirror, shutting down the car while your wife yells at you through the cell phone, replacing your old crappy lightbulbs with the new fancy ones….all of these things will SAVE YOU MONEY.

If you want to be a true believer, then think about your future grandchildren. That Big Gulp cup you just dumped out the side of your window as you sped down the highway? Your great grandson might trip over it and break his arm while trying to figure out what “trees” are.

The bottom line is, Earth Day is one of the few days where you can do something that’s totally selfish and in actually helps everybody.

Last night I stayed up late stuffing folders until fairly late.

This is difficult. And tough on one’s fingers.

Based on that experience, I am now scanning over my bio to add the phrase “grizzled veteran.”

Also, I’m willing to bet there is a folder stuffing competition out there somewhere. I say this because ESPN7 is showing competitive cup stacking. Is the “World’s Fastest Ten-Key” coming on next?

I have slipped on sending credit where it is due. The title of this blog was pulled from the blog of one Benjamin Suderman. He got stuck on that one post back in February of 2008, but we have all continued the dialog in our hearts. Thanks, Ben for letting me borrow the title.

The greater inspiration, of course for both of us, is I, Claudius. If you’ll recall, I, Claudius is the story of… I forget, but the dramatized version PBS made had exposed breasts. Did I mention I was in college when I saw it? That was awesome.

Also, they tended to get their “U”s confused with “V”s back in ancient times. Glad we got that cleared up.

• Half my body is sunburnedfrom the football scrimmage. My insides are devastated by the 5-yr old niece wanting to go to the Golden Corral. #
• Check that. White team heckled the kicker into a miss, game ends tied 35-35 #
• Red team wins ob a last secobd louks run http://twitpic.com/3jqvc #
• 46 aeconds left and the red is in scoribg position down 6 so is your mom http://twitpic.com/3jq8z #
• Jan jorgensen from byu is here and being heckled. Also white is up 35-29, 3:00 left #
• Wynn in at qb already looka better than the other 2 http://twitpic.com/3jp0b #
• Louks throws a td and im getting sunburnt http://twitpic.com/3jop6 #
• Cain looks very good. Shakerin touchdown http://twitpic.com/3jnu6 #
• Wht is this? Football? In the spring? Wut? http://twitpic.com/3jnfe #
• Utah up on utah at halftime in utah utah utah . Utah http://twitpic.com/3jmot #
• Louks has been off a little bit http://twitpic.com/3jltr #
• We’re late!
  http://twitpic.com/3jl1f #
• I understand why ppl didn’t like Quantum of Solace, but I thought it was very good. They’re building a bigger story, like the Bourne movies. #
• RT @russpage: “just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products” http://tr.im/j5w5 (Amen) #
• Planning on live Tweeting the University of Utah spring football game tomorrow. Yes I’m desperate for football of any type. Sue me. #
• RT @cheapchick: Free light bulb, water-saving device and buy one get one free offers at HomeDepot. Go Sunday. http://ping.fm/kHObj #
• RT @cheapchick: Free light bulb, water-saving device and buy one get one free offers at HomeDepot. Go Sunday. http://tinyurl.com/c7l6t2 #
• I just made Lindsey Greathouse experience this vid. If not for the internet, it wouldn’t have been shared with anyone http://twurl.nl/mhozbi #
• Home sick with some kind of whooping cough and the body aches. Feel like a hero for not spreading it to my coworkers. #
• Annnnd bscarter.com is down. Sigh. #
• Final 4 in the Name of the Year: (4) Barkevious Mingo v. (2) Nutritious Love & (8) Velvet Milkman v. (1) Iris Macadangdang http://is.gd/lCnR #
• Wonderpets #
• Still goofing with bscarter.com. New theme feels very disco. First posts coming soon….or not. We’ll see. #

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I promised credit to the great people who helped me get this blog up and running, and while I was a dolt and forget to mention them in the initial post, all will be mentioned here.

Trey Brown @trey_brown A good dude with fine taste in the sporting team he prefers to support. Also, lefthanded, so part of our international right-brain uprising. http://thesoonergeek.com/

Patrick Allmond @patrickallmond Another Oklahoman (notice a trend here? Okies help others. Some of the best people in the universe. Seriously.) and social media wizard. http://patrickallmond.com/

Lesley Mitchell @cheapchick A business writer for the Salt Lake Tribune who has a knack for finding cheap/free deals. If you know how cheap I am, and how much I love free stuff, then you get why I follow her. http://blogs.sltrib.com/cheap/

Angie Reese @angiereese Don’t know how she found me, but she was very helpful. http://www.awareindia.net/

Love these folks as well, who chimed in to offer their thoughts as well: @rexbarrett, @chefrp (his OKC restaurant has a pepper bar) (not really) @cabaincokc and @calanan

Russ Page @russpage He’s an SEO guy, and is also going to be very sad at watching his BYU team get destroyed by OU in Dallas this September. www.russpage.net

Speaking Of Football…

Utah players celebrate after beating TCU on November 6, 2008

Your humble blogger will be going to the University of Utah’s spring football game tomorrow. This is an attempt to get a football fix that will not last through the summer. In fact, after the draft next weekend, I’ll be depressed. What else is there? The 6-months of NBA playoffs? Baseball? NASCAR?!

Kill me dead.

I’ll be live-tweeting it over at http://www.twitter.com/bscarter, if I remember to. Look for lots of “The walk-on just threw ANOTHER pick!” or “Some guy who will disappear in the fall looks like an ALL-AMERICAN today!”

I’ll also be getting sunburnt.

Finally, I have a lot of leftover schwag from my NBA days. What should I do with a 2004 LA Clippers media guide? Give it away on my blog. Not sure how I’m going to do it, but look for something in the coming weeks.

Have a thooper weekend, and enjoy your pizza rolls.

Chances are a lot of you reading this are doing so with the FireFox web browser, which means many of you are using the AdBlock Plus plugin. For the uninitiated, AdBlock Plus eliminates the majority of ads on the innerwebs.

I won’t lie: I love ABP. It’s awesome. The world is a much better place minus the “Throw a baseball at Barry Bonds and win an iTunes gift card!” or “You are the 100,000th visitor to this site! Click here to claim your prize!”

Honestly, the majority of online ads are godawfully annoying and take longer to load than the actual content you’re there for. Thus, AdBlock Plus is ridiculously popular and welcome.

The downside is many of the sites you visit rely on people to click those ads to produce revenue, which allows them to continue serving you.

Which brings me to newspapers. They’re struggling to survive as advertisers chase the online crowd. Some papers are making decent transitions online, some aren’t. Irregardless, the content provided by the journalists is valuable (even the annoying guy who complains that every paper has a liberal/conservative bias agrees with this, deep down inside).

Here’s an idea: If you read a news site online, especially a local one, do them a favor and turn off the AdBlock. I’m not asking you to just click on ads for the sake of clicking on them or buy crap you don’t need, but at least give them the chance to introduce you to something relevant. If something they’re advertising grabs you, click on it.

It’s a small step. If you no longer subscribe to a printed product but still read them online, I think it’s entirely fair. I want to continue visiting sites like sltrib.com and deseretnews.com for reliable Salt Lake news. Without them, people would be checking things like my Twitter stream, which is entirely useless to anyone.

(You don’t have to disable ABP entirely. When you install the plugin, there’s an icon on the upper right corner, which a pulldown arrow. Click on that arrow, and then “Disable on [the site] only.” Simple. You can keep blocking the ads on the dirty, filthy sites you visit, yet allow them on the reputable ones.)

Know what’s really hard for me? Writing an initial post that won’t make me feel ashamed in a few years.

I’ll skip the pithy attempts at wit and just tell you about myself.

I’m a 28-year old Oklahoma native living in Salt Lake City, Utah, with my wife and son. I’m a freelance writer, public relations pro, OU Sooners nut (with a passioned nod toward the Tulsa Golden Hurricane), sports nerd, beer snob and “buy local” loyalist.

This blog will basically be a journal of the things that interest me that I think may interest you as well. I’ll write (badly, sloppily) about the world of PR, sports, Salt Lake City-area local restaurant reviews, products you should love and on and on and on.

All I care about is that it’s fun and not a waste of your time.

That being said, a few promises from me to you:

1. I promise to never try and sell you crap or any schemes. No “Make Millions NOW!!!!!” or such non-sense from me
2. One word you’ll never see on here: WOOT or any of its variations. Punch me if I ever do
   (An exception granted to the fine folks at woot.com, who have great deals. The word as a noun is fine; as a random exclamation it’s intolerable)
3. No inspirational quotes, unless there’s a specific reason. Those of you on Twitter will understand and likely even appreciate this
4. I won’t be a douchebag. If I’m posting about faith, restaurants, political theory or something that counts as personal preference, I will present it as so. You’re welcome to tell me I’m wrong (see #5)
5. From time to time I’ll post something you don’t agree with, and I welcome you to flame away in the comments. Keep it civil and minus personal attacks, and all will be well

Reading it back….okay, there’s no way I can write anything in this post that I won’t look back on as weak or cliche. Might as well hit publish and let ‘er rip.

Thanks for being here.

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